Tagline: Two brothers united by friendship divided by destiny.
Film Details Rating: PG Runtime: 99 minutes Year: 1998
Directors: Brenda Chapman Steve Hickner Simon Wells
Main Cast Val Kilmer as Moses Ralph Fiennes as Rameses Michelle Pfeiffer as Tzipporah Sandra Bullock as Miriam Jeff Goldblum as Aaron Danny Glover as Jethro Patrick Stewart as Seti I Helen Mirren as The Queen Steve Martin as Hotep Martin Short as Huy
Synopsis Following the Biblical story, the life of Moses is laid out from his birth as a Hebrew and fated adoption by the Egyptian Pharoh, to his abandonment of that life of luxury in order to come full circle and save his people of birth from slavery.
My Thoughts Often when you say that a movie is a "story from The Bible" you have non-religious people running away cringing. So, to make said events not only approval-worthy in the eyes of many religious followers but captivating enough for those who doubt said events to watch is quite a feat. This film does just that. [bonus points]
While not fully accurate to the written accounts of the events in the Hebrew Bible, as a man of religious faith I believe that the creative licensing taken was enough to help the story flow better while not trampling on the core beliefs. [more bonus points] A preface in the film even mentions this for early clarification. As an example within the film, Aaron, the blood brother of Moses, was a slave without hope alongside their hopeful sister (also a slave) throughout the movie. In the writings of The Bible, however, he aided Moses in their quest, often as the more communicative of the two. By putting all events on a single man's shoulders in the film, I feel it made the journey feel that much more difficult and focused the storytelling more.
With an all-star cast of voices driving the story, the animation is top-notch, in my opinion trumping many Disney films despite their decades of reputation against DreamWorks' newness to the field. (The Prince of Egypt, produced simultaneously with Antz, were jointly the company's first full-length feature films.) Though the film uses GC animation for some of the most complicated shots such as a moving crowd of thousands, the majority of the film was created with traditional cell animation. The beauty of parting of the Red Sea has also become an iconic piece of artistry. [even more bonus points]
The orchestration of the film (which I was surprised to hear so much of) was also very pleasing. I note my amazement in learning that Ofra Haza, who marvelously sung the opening number for the film, did so in 17 of the film's released languages! On a sad note, she died barely a year after the film's release.
In the end, I feel that it was a brave project choice for DreamWorks to take on, and it paid off in spades.
Summary: Dolph Springer (Jack Plotnick) wakes up one morning at 7:60 to realize he has lost the love of his life, his dog, Paul. During his quest to get Paul (and his life) back, Dolph radically changes the lives of others ... risking his sanity all the while.
My Thoughts: Now this was an experience ... Quentin Dupieux did it again and even more. If you thought that Rubber was weird you'd have to find new words for "Wrong". The feature could be called Dadaistic if there wouldn't be something like a plausible main-story as a basis (even though this may stretch "plausible" a bit). It could be called "Comedy", but only in the classical meaning (Play with an happy ending).
Most of all it seems to be an LSD-trip for the eyes, it has (like "Rubber") extremely powerful and well-composed pictures, which nevertheless never seem to make any sense, or (come to that) add anything to the main-story. Strangely though, this feature is highly entertaining and the (roughly) 90 minutes pass "in no time at all".
So if you expect a movie to move in a straight line from the beginning to the end, skip this one. But if you are willing to watch a dream come true (and this is not meant in the fairytale meaning, but translates to: abrupt jumps on the timeline (all directions!) combined with surreal locations, situations and actions), give "Wrong" a chance. After all, the title really says it all.
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May 18, 2024, 03:27:37 AM
